The
following article appeared in The Independent on Saturday 12
March 1994
When Moscow snubbed her cosmopolitan group, Lygia O'Riordan went on
hunger strike. Andrew Green reports:PRIDE AGAINST THE ODDSA call from the airport, and my meeting with Lygia
O'Riordan was postponed. Back home in Moscow, Ensemble XXI's principal
sponsor, the Progress Bank, was about to pull the financial plug. As
usual, O'Riordan was adding the role of Ms Fixit to her duties as the
conductor of an orchestra whose very title is a statement of faith in
Russia's future.

Later, she fills me in. "I virtually camped in the bank, begging
the manager to give me the money. One player in the orchestra was about
to be evicted from his flat - he's only 18 and living away from his
parents, so I was frantic." The players' salaries for January
finally came through from the bank earlier this month. In February the
rouble devalued by another 40% or so against the dollar; an other test
for the commitment of Ensemble XXI's cosmopolitan membership. Players
from Western Europe are hard to attract. Countries currently represented
include Cuba, Vietnam, Finland, Ireland and Ecuador in addition to
Russia itself and various republics once part of the Soviet Union. To
O'Riordan, country of origin is an irrelevancy. "I've only to
listen to the playing of, say, our Vietnamese violist Thu Nuyen, to get
very indignant about how much musicians are paid in the West."
Almost all the orchestra's members were trained at the Moscow
Conservatoire by teachers in the line that produced the likes of
Rostropovich, the Oistrakhs and Bashmet.

The long-term prospects for Ensemble XXI's relationship with its sponsor
took a further dive as the Progress Bank withdrew its underwriting of
the orchestra's Western European tour this month. To lose faith with
halls such as the Concertgebouw, St David's in Cardiff and St John's
Smith Square was unthinkable. Friends of the orchestra in the UK,
Ireland and Holland have been offering assistance.

In her clipped, precise delivery O'Riordan reflects on how different
things might be if Western concert agents were willing to look beyond
obvious star names. "These days, with every Ivanov, Ivanov and
Ivanov eager to earn quick money in the West, agents are bored with
Russia and our orchestra seems bizarre. Before our last London concert I
invited along an impresario with a long standing interest in Russia. He
just said 'An Irish conductor of a Russian chamber orchestra in Moscow?
Impossible.'"

The daughter of an Irish diplomat, O'Riordan grew up in Holland, the
USA, Australia, Denmark and Austria. Early musical training from
Hungarian teachers in both New York and Sydney led to studies in Choral
conducting at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. Standards of Hungarian
orchestral playing made no great impression until Mariss Jansons arrived
to conduct - galvanise - a local orchestra. "It was electrifying. I
decided immediately to go on to study in Russia."

In the year she auditioned at the Moscow Conservatoire, O'Riordan was
the only pupil, from home or abroad, accepted by Gennadi Rozhdestvensky.
Ensemble XXI, founded by O'Riordan and Finnish violinist, Pia Siirala,
in 1989, is the embodiment of her desire to keep the Russian string
tradition alive. "It's what produces that incredible open sound
with such reserves of power - it has to do, for example, with the way
the bow is held and the flexibility of the wrist."

"In the past every string player in a Russian orchestra played that
way, whereas in the West you see a range of techniques being used. The
tragedy is that so many teachers of this tradition - from primary to
Conservatoire level - have left Moscow, often to go abroad, where they
can't have the same impact." To tap into the tradition, Ensemble
XXI's new young cellist, Pavel Gomsyakov, traversed O'Riordan's rigorous
audition and probation procedures. "I have to rely on the older
cellists in the orchestra to pass on the secrets of this string sound -
yet these players are only in their mid-twenties! That's how rapidly
thing have worsened."

The facts of life in Moscow show scant respect for Ensemble XXI's
idealism. The orchestra abandoned rehearsals at the Moscow Conservatoire
because of a rent hike. Now the bass is a more modest Dom Kulturi, or
House of Culture: a local club. "It's OK," says O'Riordan
philosophically, "apart from a large rat which often darts through
the orchestra." The players are convinced the new Russian Mafia has
moved in on the music business. "They run the only Moscow shop
where we can by strings," says the violinist Dimtri Mistrikov
"prices are three times those in the West - a set costs a month's
salary. Repairs can only be paid for in dollars. A decent instrument
cost an incredible price. I'm ashamed to be playing on a paper bag in
some of the world's great halls."

The privations might seem more tolerable if Moscow's remaining musical
establishment offered support. "What we get is suspicion,"
says O'Riordan. "They find me threatening as a foreigner and
consider the orchestra's 'experimental' programming as somehow
subversive. Instead of concentrating on Russian repertoire we play
anything that a string orchestra can play." Last year the Moscow
Conservatoire hierarchy cancelled a concert booking for its main hall by
Ensemble XXI. O'Riordan was informed that neither the orchestra nor its
repertoire was sufficiently Russian in hue. Her answer was a hunger
strike. It brought a climb down - if no contrition.

Ensemble XXI appears in all the main Moscow halls. O'Riordan's
repertoire policy has stirred public interest, but still the best way to
guarantee audiences is to offer champagne in the ticket price. With an
eight-concert subscription ticket for the orchestra's Dom Kulturi series
costing the equivalent of £60, box-office returns constitute no
meaningful income. Tours away from Moscow may make a rouble or two.
Equally, they can be a matter of … well, Russian roulette. A recent
trip to Tambov was sponsored by a local political party. On discovering
that sleeping arrangements for the train journey amounted to bunks in a
cattle truck, O'Riordan paid for proper accommodation and then presented
the concert organisers with an ultimatum - no reimbursement, no concert.

"I constantly refuse to accept promises that cash would appear the
next morning, until finally I gave in to a plea from the head of the
political party. The next day: no money. It seemed the official had just
lost his seat and was only concerned to pocket the cash from the
concert, which was planned as a victory celebration."

Such adversity has, it seems, bred camaraderie in the Ensemble XXI
ranks. Membership has remained stable, largely because bringing good
players together has nurtured a collective pride in the standard of
performance achieved. And, adds the Ecuadorian violist Fredi Yaramilio,
"I think it makes sense that you should begin your work as a
musician in the environment where you studied - even in Moscow."
"If someone left now," says the violinist Zsenia Lobas,
"it would feel like bereavement or divorce."